Special teams nearly cost the Los Angeles Rams against the Panthers in the Wild Card Round. Matthew Stafford ensured that wouldn’t happen, but if special teams didn’t cost them this weekend, it will eventually.
The unit has been the Rams’ biggest weakness all season long. It was so bad that Sean McVay made an in-season coaching change for the first time in his tenure following the Week 16 loss to the Seahawks. Moving from Chase Blackburn to Ben Kotwica hasn’t mattered much, considering poor special teams play has been an issue for YEARS.
ST blunders are inevitable for this team, and again, nearly sent the Rams home early.
With Los Angeles ready to punt with just over four minutes left to play up 27-24, Carolina blocked Ethan Evans’ punt to set themselves up at the Rams’ 30. Four plays and 30 yards later, the Panthers scored a touchdown to go up by four points.
The block was inexcusable and put Stafford and the offense in a horrible spot. No disrespect to the Panthers, but imagine if something like this happened against a stronger opponent.
Oh wait … we don’t have to imagine because it’s happened in three of the team’s five losses.
There were two blocked kicks in the gut-wrenching loss to the Eagles in Week 3 and two missed kicks in the overtime loss to Mac Jones and the 49ers two weeks later. The worst special teams offenses came in the awful fourth quarter against the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football, which were lowlighted by Rashid Shaheed’s 58-yard punt return touchdown.
That was easily the worst of the bunch, considering everything at stake. Seattle crawled back into a game they simply had no business being in, and because of it, the Rams missed out on the NFC’s top seed and the division crown.
We already know all about the awfulness of those errors. However, they’re worth rehashing again and again since this team has failed to learn from them. Special teams is the most important unit on a particular team given their ability to make or break even the greatest teams. Ask the 2010 Chargers about how important they are if you disagree with that statement.
Fortunately, the Rams have actually found themselves a kicker. Harrison Mevis was practically perfect in the regular season, missing only one field goal. His productivity carried over in his first taste of playoff action, making both field goal attempts and all four extra points. Turns out moving on from the Karty party was a smart idea, just a shame it didn’t happen way sooner.
The not-so-special teams unit will likely doom this team at some point. It almost needs to occur again to finally make McVay and the front office buckle down and take action. There is no reason for the unit to continue playing as poorly as it has all year long, and it would be a damn shame for it to cut another promising Rams season short.
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